Cailean Steed

Cailean Steed is a writer based near Glasgow, Scotland. Their first novel, Home, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023. Their writing has also appeared in a number of anthologies and journals on both sides of the Atlantic, including New Writing Scotland, Disturbing the Beast, and Kairos. Their short story 'Blind Baggage' was longlisted for the 2017 Bare Fiction Prize, and later appeared in Barren Magazine. Cailean is also an award-winning writer of audio dramas, winning the Pen to Print 2021 Audioplay Award for their drama REALBOY, which was later produced with a full cast by Alternative Stories.

Cailean completed a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow in 2017, graduating with Distinction, and has been the recipient of various residencies and bursaries, including the Radical Care residency at Moniack Mhor, and grants from Literature Alliance Scotland and Creative Scotland.

They have led creative writing workshops for a number of different groups, including for adult writers, school pupils, and at Moniack Mhor’s Young Writers’ Café.

They are also an experienced chair of literary events, and have chaired both individual writers and panels at bookshop events and literary festivals.

(Photo credit: Julie Broadfoot)